Rapid single nucleotide polymorphism mapping in C. elegans
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Updated: Aug 5, 2026
A Rapid and Facile Pipeline for Generating Genomic Point Mutants in C. elegans Using CRISPR/Cas9 Ribonucleoproteins
Published on: April 30, 2018
M Wayne Davis1, Marc Hammarlund, Tracey Harrach
1Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0840, USA. wdavis@biology.utah.edu
Background:
In C. elegans, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) can function as silent genetic markers, with applications ranging from classical two- and three-factor mapping to measuring recombination across whole chromosomes.
Results:
Here, we describe a set of 48 primer pairs that flank SNPs evenly spaced across the C. elegans genome and that work under identical PCR conditions. Each SNP in this set alters a DraI site, enabling rapid and parallel scoring. We describe a procedure using these reagents to quickly and reliably map mutations. We show that these techniques correctly map a known gene, dpy-5. We then use these techniques to map mutations in an uncharacterized strain, and show that its behavioral phenotype can be simultaneously mapped to three loci.
Conclusion:
Together, the reagents and methods described represent a significant advance in the accurate, rapid and inexpensive mapping of genes in C. elegans.
